The invention relates to a method for a private branch communications exchange to activate a night service configuration.
In relatively large private branch communications exchanges there is the possibility of setting up switchboard positions for a specifiable subscriber group. A switchboard position may comprise one or more attendant telephone stations, forming a group. The switchboard position serves the purpose of receiving and putting through calls--often these are to be only external calls--for the relevant subscriber group. If a switchboard position cannot perform this task, because for example the personnel operating the switchboard position is not present at the switchboard position, a so-called night service is activated for the subscriber group concerned. This activation of the night service may be performed directly at the switchboard position or from a handset authorized for this, by pressing a special button or dialling a code number or by a voice command. The activation of the night service is in many cases also referred to as "pulling the plug".
In the night service, the caller requests directed to a specific subscriber group are routed to a handset of the private branch communications exchange instead of to the switchboard position.
Common Reference DE 39 32 689 Al already discloses a method for the activation of a night service in a private branch communications exchange, in which the handset to which the call requests are diverted when the night service is activated can be determined when activating the night service by entering the call number associated with this handset. The problem underlying the known method is that of ensuring in the case where a private branch communications exchange is used jointly by a plurality of mutually dependent subscriber groups that, when activating the night service for one subscriber group, it is not possible to determine a handset of another subscriber group. To solve this problem, it is proposed according to the known method to store in a central memory information on the association of the handsets with a specific switchboard position and to use this information when activating the night service and determining the handset substituting to a certain extent the switchboard position concerned to perform a check for association of the handset with the subscriber group for which a night service is to be activated.